In the part 1 of Grown Up Digital, I chose to focus on the last chapter which talks about the effect technology has on the brains of members of the net generation, or 'net geners'. When I think about it, most of what I've heard about this subject as I've grown up is the complaints that people from the baby boomer generation have. It was interesting to actually read something that entertained the possibility that growing up with the technology I've grown up with may actually be having a positive influence on my brain.
More specifically, I found the research done on video game players to be extremely interesting. Being 22 years old, the majority of my male friends are heavily into video games. Not to mention I have an older brother, so it's something that I've been exposed to a lot. (Not saying that video games are specifically limited to males, but it does seem to be more popular among males within my own social circles) My mother's main complaint was that it wasn't healthy for my brother to spend his summer days glued to a TV or computer screen and that he needed to do something physical or something that was more mentally stimulating/beneficial. While not much can be said about the physical benefits (she had a point there), there is actually a lot that can be said about the sensory and mental benefits.
The very first example in the chapter was one where a student who regularly played action video games took a test that was intended to prove that people who are deaf had quicker visual reflexes than people who could hear. He scored 100% and attributed it to a programming error, thus asking one of his friends to take the test as well. His friend also scored 100%. Baffled, he brought in a 2nd friend, who scored 50% (which is what he initially expected to score). He then realized that him and the first friend often played action video games together, while the other was not able to because of his job as a resident advisor. As more research has been done, it has been found that these games "can make you notice more in your field of vision and speed up your processing of visual information." When I think about it, this of course makes sense to me, because video games are designed in such a way, that the player is often being bombarded with enemies/challenges, and needs to learn to eliminate them all while keeping their character alive. When this is practiced enough, it makes sense that it would have an impact on their brain/everyday life.
Another positive impact that can be had on the life of a video game player is in regards their spatial skills. When these are more highly developed, they can be highly useful in fields such as architecture, engineering and surgery. Watching my brother get sucked into his video games, I would have never imagined that he was developing skills that could be used in such complex professions!
With advances in technology, games have also become more interactive. Older video games used to focus more on a campaign structure with a chronological timeline, but now a lot of games have expanded to the point where you can explore nearly limitless worlds while collaborating with, or even managing people from all over the world. This kind of set-up is great for trial-and-error, which is something that can only be learned from the act of doing something, not from reading a book. Luckily the level of risk associated with this in a video game is low. In addition to that, the player isn't cutting themselves off from the world in favor of their video game. They are continuing to interact with others even though it's not face to face.
Perhaps the most interesting part of all of this is that the human brain is at one of it's highest levels of adaptability during teenage and early adult years, which is coincidentally when people most commonly tend to start playing video games.
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